Artist Idle

About

Artist Idle is a single player action game. It was developed by YDKR and was released on January 18, 2019. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

In Artist Idle, you can watch colored blocks slowly fill up the screen. At first, the blocks are chunky - showing a vague look at what you are trying to create. Through upgrades and gathering pixels, you are able to create more detailed pictures, eventually making works of art fit for a gallery!

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

65%

Audience ScoreBased on 341 reviews

gameplay9 positive mentions

graphics3 negative mentions

The game has a unique concept of creating art through an idle mechanic, which can be satisfying to watch as images gradually become clearer.
Despite its simplicity, 'Artist Idle' can be engaging and serves as a decent time-waster for fans of idle games.
The game allows for a significant amount of playtime, with many players enjoying the process of upgrading and progressing through the art creation.

Progression is often slow and can feel tedious, especially in the early stages, leading to a repetitive gameplay experience.
The game lacks meaningful offline progression, requiring players to keep it running to make any significant gains, which can be frustrating.
There are issues with balance and clarity in the upgrade system, which can lead to confusion and loss of progress for players.

gameplay
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
61%
12%
The gameplay of this idle game features a unique drawing mechanic that quickly becomes repetitive and unengaging, requiring long periods of idling without offline progression. While some players appreciate the initial fun and variety of mechanics, many criticize the overall experience as tedious, lacking depth, and burdened by a poor user interface and monetization issues. Ultimately, the game struggles to maintain player interest due to its slow progression and reliance on repetitive tasks.
- “Good semi-idle-active gameplay balance with a unique concept.”
- “This game has a lot of great mechanics and cool stuff you unlock through the gameplay.”
- “Great idle game with fresh mechanics.”
- “The gameplay is not fun and there isn't much of it to begin with either.”
- “You're required to idle (without closing the game because there is no offline mechanic) for ~20 hours at a time in order to get enough fame to progress.”
- “Plenty of gameplay elements are locked behind repeated collects and prestiges only to have more of the same thing, and instead of making the process go faster, it instead only feels slower.”
graphics
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
45%
33%
The graphics of the game are described as minimal and somewhat bland, with a pixelated aesthetic that evolves into clearer images over time. While some users find the visual progression satisfying, others criticize the lack of engaging artwork and animations, noting that the overall aesthetic feels underwhelming. Additionally, performance issues are mentioned, with the game running on low settings and not consistently achieving smooth frame rates.
- “One of the good idle games with interesting artwork.”
- “There is something visually satisfying to watch your 'artwork' getting sharper from a bunch of pixels into a clearer picture while upgrading your tools to render it faster and in higher resolution.”
- “You think there is more to this game, like an interesting concept of art being made over time or some quirk to any sort of element to the game; in reality it is a bland idle game, with no flavor text, or cute graphics and animations.”
- “Only real downside is the aesthetic of the game itself.”
- “Visuals: minimal, you slowly watch a pixellated picture turn into an actual picture.”
monetization
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
37%
38%
The monetization aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players criticizing it as a greedy cash grab due to high-priced DLC and a design that encourages microtransactions. While the game is free and lacks ads, many feel that the long grind is intentionally structured to push players towards spending money. Overall, the monetization strategy has left a negative impression, overshadowing the game's potential.
- “The game is free, and at first glance, I think it is all achievable without in-game purchases.”
- “My only 'meh' is the cost of in-game purchases.”
- “As far as clickers go, this is one of the worst, with a really sloppy, lackluster web 1.0 style HTML-looking interface, very limited gameplay (even for a clicker), and what's worse, while it looks like it's free, it's really a greedy and overly optimistic cash grab, with a completely insane price on the DLC (you're expected to pay over $100 to 'boost' the game).”
- “Overall, the only good thing about this game is the concept, and I'd probably pay a few bucks for a game like this if there were no in-game purchases and all original art.”
- “The grind is long and drawn out, and very clearly designed to drive people towards microtransactions.”
grinding
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
86%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and unenjoyable, often requiring repetitive tasks without meaningful upgrades. Many express frustration with the long stretches of inactivity and the necessity to repeatedly engage in monotonous gameplay to progress. Overall, the grinding is seen as a major drawback that detracts from the overall experience.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Super tedious and not enjoyable.”
- “Painting a picture without any upgrades is very tedious, and the game will repeatedly force you back to doing so over and over again. No matter how far you get or what upgrades you buy, if you want to progress, you have to do it completely without upgrades again, and again, and again.”
- “I don't know whether I dislike the long stretches of doing nothing or the long stretches of repeating the tedious beginning of the game (that normal idle games only force you to do once for a reason) over and over again.”
story
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The game's story and characters are highly praised, particularly the main character's journey of self-discovery, though some players feel that the narrative doesn't fully engage until many hours in. However, there are also opinions suggesting that the game may not require a strong story, implying that it could be enjoyed without a traditional narrative focus.
- “I really love the main character and their story of self-discovery.”
- “The story and the characters are just so amazing!”
- “This game doesn't need a story or interactive, action-packed sections.”
- “If you want a story, go read a book.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is noted as very funny and engaging, with a lighthearted, AFK (away from keyboard) style. Some users suggest that the game could have potentially increased its appeal and revenue by incorporating more risqué content, but it opts for a PG approach instead.
- “Very funny, very AFK-like game.”
- “What's funny is that if they simply used hentai images, they would be getting like 300 times the money they are right now, but they decided to keep it PG.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
100%
The game's optimization has been criticized for being poor, with players experiencing significant performance issues, such as low frame rates (as low as 8 fps), particularly beyond the early stages. While the game is recommended, it requires considerable time investment and potentially more powerful hardware to progress effectively.
- “I do recommend this game; however, be prepared to sink a lot of time and a bit more than expected hardware performance into going much further than the 4th city.”
- “Trash optimization, 8 fps.”
- “I do recommend this game, however be prepared to sink a lot of time and a bit more than expected hardware performance into going much further than the 4th city.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users report that the game exhibits stability issues, with frequent bugs affecting gameplay. This has led to a less than optimal experience, reminiscent of titles from developers known for similar problems.
- “Also, it's a bit buggy.”
- “[insert famous buggy developer here]”
music
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features a complete absence of sound, lacking background music, button click noises, and ambient sounds, which leaves players with a silent experience.
- “There is no sound - no background music, no button click noises, no ambient sounds, nothing.”